Secrets Revealed: Love for Mars
by A Writer of Fact and Fiction
Summary: Rei finds that true love is closer than she had thought. This story is the second part of my ongoing series about Usagi and her friends.


Secrets Revealed - Love for Mars

. . . . .

At the Hikawa Shrine...

The elderly Shinto priest stood waiting outside the shrine's private bathroom, his patience wearing thin. He yelled through the closed door, "Yuuichirou-chan! Are you going to be much longer?"

An apologetic reply was accompanied by the bathroom door sliding open. "I'm finished, Hino-sensei. Sorry to keep you waiting."

The Shinto priest's young apprentice stood in the doorway and the older man stared up at him in surprise. "What have you done with yourself?" Yuuichirou nearly looked like a different person, his face painstakingly clean-shaven and his normally shaggy hair shortened slightly and tidied up.

"I was just trying to make myself a little more presentable. Do you think it's an improvement?" the teenager asked hopefully.

Rei's grandfather was suspicious. "This isn't for Rei, is it? You know my feelings about her dating boys before she's sixteen!"

"I.. well... uh..." Yuuichirou stammered.

Hino-sensei shook his head, a faint smile hidden behind his gruff words. "You have work to attend to. Please see to it." He hurried into the bathroom and closed the door, muttering to himself.

Undaunted, the teen walked past the room where Rei and her friends were studying, hoping he would meet her in the hallway. Out of luck, he sighed and continued on to the front of the shrine where a small group of high school students waited to buy o-inori charms. He took his place on a wooden stool and began selling the charms, wondering what he could possibly say or do to win Rei's heart.

. . . . .

"This doesn't make any sense!" Usagi wailed. _"I hate math!"_

At the other end of the table, Rei grumbled, "Will you keep it down, Usagi-chan! Some of us are trying to improve our grades."

"So am I, Rei-chan" the blonde replied indignantly. "But it's _so hard!_"

"Show me what you don't understand, Usagi-chan" Ami offered. "Maybe I can help."

"Help Usagi? She's a lost cause!" Rei joked.

The blonde made a sour face. "Well at least _some_ people are nice to me." She pointed to a page in her textbook. "I tried putting these numbers in the formula but it doesn't give the right answer, Ami-chan."

The studious blue-haired girl reviewed her friend's work and quickly spotted the problem. "This number is supposed to be negative. Did you remember to add the minus sign?"

_"Of course I did!"_ Usagi blurted. "See, it's right here... _oops!_" She grinned sheepishly, "I guess that's where I went wrong."

_"Baka!"_

"Rei-chan, everyone makes mistakes." Minako tried to break the tension that was forming between her friends. "After all, we can't all be the next Frankenstein" she admonished the miko with a wagging finger.

"Ah, I think you mean Einstein" Ami corrected her, suppressing a smile.

"Oh. Well... whatever!" Minako replied nonchalantly as the other girls laughed. "Ami-chan, when am I going to meet this boyfriend of yours? You _did_ invite him to study with us, didn't you?"

Ami blushed deeply. "Ryo-kun is staying late at school tonight. He and a boy from Usagi's class, Umino-chan, volunteered to tutor some students that need a little extra help."

"Forget it, Minako-chan. He's already spoken for!" Makoto grinned. She glanced at Ami, who nodded briskly before blushing even more.

"I _know_ that, silly! But as the Senshi of Love, it's one of my duties to make sure we all find wonderful relationships with really great boys."

"Well you only have three of us to worry about now" Makoto chuckled. "So, what's your plan for Rei-chan and me?"

Minako thought for a moment. "I'm still working on you, Mako-chan. These things can take time, you know. But... as for Rei-chan, I get the feeling that love for her is just around the corner."

"Oh?" Rei asked. "Do you happen to have someone in that matchmaking mind of yours?"

"How do you feel about Yuuichirou?"

Rei fell silent as the other four girls looked at her expectantly.

"Shouldn't we be studying?" Rei finally replied. "We can talk about boys later."

Minako opened her mouth to reply when a loud, unearthly shriek filled the air, coming from somewhere outside the shrine.

_"That's a youma!"_ Makoto exclaimed. "And it's _close!_" Rushing from the room, they hurried down the hallway that led outside. In the courtyard most of the visitors had fled for their lives, leaving only two trembling female students and Yuuichirou near the temple door. Facing them about twenty feet away stood a grotesque creature that stood half as high as the tall torii gate behind it.

Again the youma screeched, its horrifying sight causing the two students to faint from shock. Yuuichirou reached for the nearest of the girls before she struck her head on the door and lowered her gently to the ground. His hands and knees trembled visibly at the sight of the menacing being which had moved to the center of the courtyard, the large soulless eyes in its malformed head swivelling as though it were looking for something or someone.

Rei and the other girls ran up behind Yuuichirou and despite the evil creature outside, Rei did a double-take at the freshly-groomed young man. Seeing the beautiful young miko beside him gave the teen a sudden rush of adrenaline. No matter what happened to him, he knew he had to defend the girl he loved.

Yuuichirou yelled, _"Go back inside, Rei-chan! I'll protect you!"_

'Oh no, not again!' the miko groaned, remembering the near-disaster that occurred several weeks before when her grandfather had been transformed into a youma as Zoisite had claimed the elderly man's nijizuishou.

Summoning every ounce of his courage, Yuuichirou grabbed a broom that had been leaning against the nearby wall and rushed toward the youma, screaming _"Go away you monster!"_ He swung the broom wildly at the being, missing it, and was immediately and forcefully thrown backward against the wall by a shock wave from the creature's spindly outstretched limbs. The broom snapped in half across his chest, pieces flying. His head sank to the ground as his body collapsed into a heap, laying motionless against the side of the building.

Rei gasped, feeling deep concern as well as a growing fondness in her heart for the brave but foolish young man. She spoke as she glared angrily at the youma, "This one's _mine!_" Raising her henshin stick, she commanded, _"MARS POWER, MAKE-UP!"_

The other girls also quickly transformed and confronted the monster. Sailors Jupiter and Mercury positioned themselves as shields between the youma and the fallen students.

_"FIRE SOUL!"_

The blazing sphere of flaming plasma incinerated both forelimbs of the approaching youma causing it to stop and writhe in pain.

An instant later, Venus summoned her power.

_ "CRESCENT BEAM!"_

The shaft of pure energy from her index finger amputated one of the creature's legs and it began to slowly topple over.

_"MOON TIARA ACTION!"_

Sailor Moon followed up with her attack and the being was sliced in half by the glowing disc. It dissolved into black dust with a final scream of agony that echoed off the walls of the shrine.

Having destroyed the youma, the others quickly reverted to human form and went to assist the two fallen students, while Mars rushed to Yuuichirou. Just as the young man began to regain consciousness, her red Senshi uniform transformed into TA Girls School clothing as Sailor Mars became Hino Rei once more. She ran up to him and kneeled beside the young man's prone form as his eyes flickered open.

_"Yuuichirou!_ Are you ok?"

The teenager's battered body ached all over, his head still spinning from the impact with the wall while a slow trickle of blood oozed from a slight gash on one hand. He groaned and stirred, Rei carefully helping him sit upright. Now that he was coming around, she felt a deep sense of relief. "What were you trying to do, you idiot?_ You could have been killed!"_

Yuuichirou sat back against the wall in silence, his mind reeling. Though Rei was unaware, he had awakened just in time to see Sailor Mars transform back into the girl of his dreams. The realization left him stunned and speechless: Hino Rei, the girl he secretly loved, was Sailor Mars!

. . . . .

Late that night...

Yuuichirou crept around his bedroom at the shrine's living quarters as quietly as he could, his body still sore from the earlier ordeal. Only one light was on, a dim gooseneck lamp he had used for reading. He pulled the handle of a cabinet drawer gently, knowing it always squeaked when opened too fast. Rummaging through the items inside, he selected a few last necessities and added them to a small duffel bag that lay on his bed.

The young apprentice took one final glance around the room to be sure he hadn't missed anything. Spotting a picture on top of the cabinet, he picked it up and looked at it. Taken in happier times, it showed Rei and himself sitting together on the shrine steps, the beautiful raven-haired girl tasting some dumplings he had made for her two weeks before.

His eyes focused on her face and he brushed it slowly and tenderly with a finger as another wave of crushing sadness swept over him. Blinking back a tear, he replaced the picture on the cabinet, then changed his mind and quickly slipped it into his duffel bag. A short note he was leaving on his bed explained simply that he thought it was time to move on, and he was now doing so. He had said nothing to Rei about discovering she was a Senshi, and thought it best for her that it remained a secret.

Deciding he'd packed all he needed, he sealed the bag and clicked off the light. As carefully as he could, he walked softly down the dark hallway and out through the shrine door. The bright lights of Tokyo dazzled his eyes for a moment, and he glanced back at what had been his home one final time. The same thought that had driven him to pack now pushed him onward, down the steps and away from his dreams. Away from Rei.

'I'm just not good enough for her. She's a Sailor Senshi! I can't compete with that. There's nothing as great I could possibly ever give her, only... my love.'

And with that thought, he walked away from the Hikawa Shrine.

. . . . .

At the shrine, the next day...

"Rei-chan, have you seen Yuuichirou this morning?" the elderly priest asked her granddaughter at breakfast.

"No, Ojii-chan. He must have slept in again."

The dimuinitive old man grumbled, "Well, would you mind waking him up after you finish your meal? He's slept long enough."

"I'm finished, I'll go get him now." Rei excused herself from the table and hurried to wake the sometimes-daydreaming apprentice. Standing outside the door to his room, she rapped hard on its wooden frame. _"Yuuichirou-chan!_ Wake up, Grandpa is looking for you!" Receiving no answer, she called his name again. Puzzled, she warned, "I'm coming in there so you'd better be decent!" Sliding the door open, she cautiously peeked inside, surprised to find the room empty. Spotting a piece of paper on his bed, she walked over and picked it up just as her grandfather entered the room behind her.

"What's that, Rei-chan?"

"It looks like some kind of note." Rei read the words twice, a tightness forming in her chest. She couldn't believe he had left them. A tear formed as she managed to choke out a few words, "He's _gone_, Ojii-chan!"

She passed the paper to her grandfather as an intense feeling of sadness and loss gripped her. "He must have left last night. _Oh..._" Looking around the small room, she realized the picture of her and Yuuichirou that he had liked so much was also missing.

"That's a shame. The boy had potential. I was hoping to give him further training today." Her grandfather folded the note, handed it back to Rei and left the room shaking his head, also feeling the loss. "That is too bad."

Rei sat heavily on the bed, the sudden emptiness that gripped her insides surprising her. _'Yuuichirou, why did you leave me?'_

For the first time, she admitted to herself that despite scolding him often for his mistakes and hardly showing any affection at all toward him, she deeply cared for the young man. He seemed to have been happy working and living at the shrine, so the words in his note didn't make sense to her. Deciding to find the real reason why he had left, she hurried to the room containing the sacred fire and knelt before it.

A few minutes later, Rei dashed outside and ran toward a nearby park. Her miko robe and long skirt flapped behind her, several passers-by staring at the sight. She didn't care, her only thought now was to find Yuuichirou before he left the place that had been revealed to her in the flames.

. . . . .

Juuban Park...

Yuuichirou sat forlornly on a bench gazing at a nearby small lake. Brilliant blue water sparkled in the sun, but the young man looked at it without seeing. He had been sitting on the bench for several hours but it felt like an eternity since he walked out of the Hikawa Jinja. Reaching into his duffel bag, he once more removed the picture that now was his only link to the happy past, his hopes and the girl he loved.

. . . . .

Rei spotted Yuuichirou sitting hunched over on a park bench, a small duffel bag opened beside him. She was about to call his name, then decided to edge a little closer first. As she approached him from behind the bench, she noticed a framed photograph in his hands, the picture of him and her together at the shrine. He was staring at it quietly. She walked up behind him and softly spoke. "Ohayou, Yuuichirou-chan."

He jolted upright, hastily slipping the photo back into his bag as Rei walked around the bench and sat beside him.

_"Rei-chan!_ What are you doing here?"

"I think I should be asking you that."

The young man's head drooped down. "I... have my reasons."

"I read your note. I don't believe it." The miko looked at his face, noting the redness in his eyes. "Yuuichirou-chan, have you been crying?"

"No, it's... allergies" he fibbed.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Rei said. "You don't have allergies. Tell me, what's the real reason you left us? Was it because of... me?"

The teenage boy sat quietly thinking for a while, idly kicking at a small stone that lay at his feet. Finally he admitted his deepest secret with a sigh. "Rei-chan... I'm... in love with you."

_"In love with me?"_ Rei was stunned.

The ice broken, his words poured out in a torrent. "Hai. Rei-chan, I _am_ in love with you. I'd been living with the dream that you would someday fall in love with me too. But after that thing attacked the shrine yesterday, I realized I'm just not good enough for you."

Puzzled, Rei asked "What do you mean?"

"I know you are Sailor Mars. But please don't worry, I didn't tell your grandfather."

Rei sat frozen on the bench, momentarily speechless. Having her identity as a Sailor Senshi revealed was one thing, but hearing him confess his love to her was completely unexpected. And a very pleasant surprise. Reaching out, she took his hand. "Yuuichirou-chan, I care about you very much. Being a Senshi doesn't change anything. I'm still the same person inside. And," she added as she finally admitted the truth that lay deep within her, "I... love you too. Very much."

Now it was Yuuichirou's turn to be shocked. "You... love _me?_"

"I know I haven't exactly shown much love or affection toward you. It's difficult for me to be that way sometimes" Rei admitted. "But I liked you from the first day you turned up at the shrine, and my feelings for you have only gotten stronger with time." She smiled at him, gently squeezing his hand. "Maybe I've been in denial. Maybe my life has been too busy lately to face up to my true feelings about you. But I do love you, Yuuichirou-chan."

He looked searchingly into her beautiful violet eyes, seeking confirmation. She nodded and smiled back.

"You're not kidding?"

"Not kidding."

Yuuichirou's face lit up with joy. "Rei-chan, I..." Leaning toward her, their arms slowly encircled one another. Gently their lips came together, as two young hearts finally began to realize they had found their true soul mates.

After a quiet moment together they stood up, Rei again taking his hand in hers. "Come on, Yuuichirou-chan. Let's go home."

. . . . . . . . . .

Author's note: This is the second story in my series on Usagi and her friends. The next story is titled "Rei and Yuuichirou's Romantic Evening".


End file.
